BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Top Argentine officials are rejecting comments by U.S. Senate Republicans who grilled President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the South American country.

Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is calling Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez “extremists” who don’t represent the will of the Senate, let alone the rest of the U.S. government. Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich says both senators should show more respect.

Both senators said Argentina lacks a mature democracy. Rubio told nominee Noah Mamet that “there is a very high likelihood that if you are confirmed, while you are in that post, you are going to have another similar collapse in Argentina to what you saw economically just a decade ago.”

The Argentines on Friday reacted angrily to the criticism, without mentioning the country’s economic woes.

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